Die US-amerikanische Gesandschaft dick erneuert am Morgen nochmals die speziellen Wüsche an die finanziell abhängigen Fatahisten: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday he did not believe Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would agree to reconcile with Hamas until the Islamist group gave up control of the Gaza Strip. Cheney spoke to reporters following a breakfast meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and a day after Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas issued a declaration in Sanaa agreeing to resume dialogue under a Yemeni fence-mending initiative. "My conclusion from talking with the Palestinian leadership is that they have established preconditions which would have to be fulfilled before they would ever agree to a reconciliation, including a complete reversal of the Hamas takeover of Gaza," said Cheney, who later flew on to Ankara. "It is clearly a difficult situation, in part, because I think it's true, there's evidence, that Hamas is supported by Iran and Syria and that they're doing everything they can to torpedo the peace process." Cheney said that in his meeting with Palestinian leaders on Sunday they talked about efforts under way in Yemen to encourage reconciliation between moderate and militant Palestinians. Damit er zufrieden abreisen kann vollführen die beiden Parteien einen netten Schaukampf: Hours after signing an agreement in Yemen on Sunday, the rival Hamas and Fatah movements began to argue over the meaning of that agreement. The Palestinian presidency issued a statement arguing that the agreement called for implementation of certain demands, while Hamas viewed it merely as a pledge to begin dialogue, sources told Ma'an. Da die nächste Verhandlungsrunde im April statt finden soll, momentan eher unerheblich. Die zur Schau gestellte3 Verweigerungshaltung der Präsidentschaft: The Fatah leadership has warned that failure of the Yemeni initiative for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah would have serious repercussions for the Palestinian cause, Fatah leader Hatem Abdel Qader said on Monday. Controversy surrounds the deal which top aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas say was signed without the go-ahead of Abbas and should not have been signed at all. Andere berichten: A senior Abbas confidant, chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia, said Monday that former Deputy Palestinian Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmed signed the Yemeni declaration due to a mix-up. Al-Ahmed called Abbas' office repeatedly to get guidance, but Abbas was meeting at the time with US Vice President Dick Cheney, and al-Ahmed went ahead and signed, Qureia said. Ein derartig albernes Marionettenregierungsgehabe findet man wohl erst wieder in den 70ern irgendwo mitten in Schwarzafrika. Ich würde allerdings ruhig abwarten, denn ein neues Treffen ist ja anberaumt. Die Hamas ist hingegen der Ansicht vorgezogene Neuwahlen wären ein guter Weg aus dem Schlamassel zu kommen. Auch die israelischen Machthaber lassen Klarheit aufkommen: An Israeli official said that a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas would mean an end to peace talks with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority. Von welchen "peace talks" er jedoch redet verschweit er uns. Vielleicht meint er den billigen Dekretterror seines Verteidigungsministers? Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that Israel will soon begin making life easier for West Bank Palestinians, but that it won't remove checkpoints for now. Barak said that Israel would facilitate the construction of several industrial zones meant to provide thousands of jobs and boost the Palestinian economy. Many of the projects, funded by foreign governments, have been held up because of Israeli security concerns. However, Barak gave no timetable for the projects and did not say how he intended to move them forward. Visiting a crossing terminal between the southern West Bank and Israel, Barak said Israel would soon take steps to expedite movement through the hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks Israel has built in the West Bank. ... Vorher aber noch ein bisschen Diplomatenfangen spielen: Meanwhile, an aide to Abbas, Ahmed al-Weidi, said he was detained by Israeli police and questioned for five hours. Al-Weidi, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs, said Israel wanted information about a visit to Lebanon last month. He said the trip was to discuss the Arab League's designation of Jerusalem as an Arab cultural capital. Im Grundsatz ist die derzeitige israelische Position fast schon zu niveaulos um sie nieder zu schreiben: Man macht ohne Willen zu einem Waffenstillstand mit der Hamas zu bekunden die Abbas-Präsidentschaft für die Beendigung der Hamas-Regierung im Gazastreifen verantwortlich. Seine Versuche führen jedoch unweigerlich zu einem Abbruch der Verhandlungen. Passender Kommentar der Aussenamtsangestelten Israels: "The method by which the Ministry is managed is leading the entire organization to a situation of organizational collapse." [Auch wenns DA nur ums Geld ging.]

The military police, the northern district police and the security services arrested a career Israel Defense Forces soldier last month on suspicion that he had handed over secrets to the Lebanon-based guerilla group Hezbollah. Two other suspects were also arrested during the course of the investigation, who apparently belonged to a ring of drug smugglers from southern Lebanon into Israel. [...] Israel has decided against buying a U.S.-produced anti-rocket laser for the border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip because of the device's poor performance in field tests, a top Israeli defence official said on Monday. Israeli state arms firm Rafael is developing Iron Dome, which is designed to shoot down Palestinian rockets from Gaza with miniature missiles, but that system is not expected to be operational before 2010. Seeking a stop-gap countermeasure, Defence Ministry director-general Pinchas Buchris flew to the United States last week to re-evaluate Nautilus, an Israeli-U.S. invention that uses a laser to blow up rockets and mortar bombs mid-flight. Israeli experts had previously written off Nautilus -- which is being upgraded under a new name, Skyguard -- as unreliable, and Israel's Army Radio said Buchris had found little improvement. + Defense officials view laser as future of anti-missile technology [...] Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday said that recent threats by Hezbollah must be taken seriously, referring to intelligence warnings of attacks by the Lebanese guerilla group to avenge its slain deputy leader Imad Mughniyah. Barak's comments came as Hezbollah was scheduled to hold a formal service to commemorate 40 days since Mughniyah's death to be attended by the organization's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was expected to make a speech at the service. [...] Give the jew girl toys! Rhe IDF's Human Resources Directorate has spoken out against draft-dodging by religious Zionists and Tel Aviv residents, and has now focused his attention on girls who claim to be religious in order to evade service.

Police and sappers were once again dispatched to Ariel's IDF Street during the Purim holiday Friday morning. A few minutes earlier, a man had knocked on the door of the Leibovitz family home and left a cardboard box with the boy who answered the door. "It's mishloach manot, a Purim gift basket," explained the visitor before disappearing. The boy and his older brother trembled with fear. Their parents, who were out of town, ordered the boys by phone to get away from the package and call the police. In another residential building, 50 meters away, a bomb planted in a Purim gift basket had exploded the day before. [...] Members of the Arab political parties and of the left-wing Meretz Party stormed out of the Knesset plenum on Monday when the Chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, entered the hall. This move was reminiscent of a practice instituted in the days of the late right-wing extremist Meir Kahane. + Shahar Ilan, "The vision of an arab free Knesset"

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak heads for Russia on Monday where he is expected to get assurances of Russian assistance to build a nuclear facility. [...] Finance Ministry Director General Yarom Ariav has a dream: to turn Israel into an international financial center. His goal is for the financial industry to join high tech, bio-technology and nano-technology - and for finance to become a leading growth engine for Israel's economy. [...] Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, cut the rate by half a percent to 3.25 percent on Monday. The goal is to stop the drop in the value of the American dollar against the Israeli shekel. + As Jewish Agency funds dwindle, the immigration-oriented governmental body is turning to ultra-Orthodox philanthropists for donations to bring thousands of young Jews to Israel on organized trips, Haaretz has learned.